Missouri law, for title research

Is Missouri a community property state? No: marital property, the homestead rule, and why a spouse joins the deed

Every rule below is quoted from the Revised Statutes of Missouri or another official source, linked and checked on the date shown. General information, not legal advice.

How does Missouri classify a married couple's property?

As marital or nonmarital, for a divorce. Section 452.330.2 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri defines marital property as all property acquired by either spouse after the marriage, except property acquired by gift, bequest, devise or descent, property acquired in exchange for premarital or inherited property, property acquired after a decree of legal separation, property excluded by a valid written agreement, and the increase in value of such property unless marital assets, including labor, contributed to it.

For a divorce, title does not settle the classification. Section 452.330.3 presumes property acquired during the marriage is marital regardless of whether title is held individually or in joint tenancy, tenancy in common, tenancy by the entirety or community property, and the presumption is overcome by showing one of the listed nonmarital methods. Section 452.330.4 adds that nonmarital property does not become marital solely because it was commingled.

Outside a divorce, section 451.250 says real estate and personal property a spouse owned at marriage, or acquired by gift, bequest or inheritance or with separate money or labor, remains that spouse's separate property and under that spouse's sole control, and cannot be taken by any process of law for the other spouse's debts. Missouri statutes do mention community property from elsewhere: section 474.163.2 counts a surviving spouse's share resulting from rights in community property in any other state, formerly owned with the decedent, in the elective share calculation.

Is Missouri a 50/50 state in a divorce?

The statute sets no fixed split. In a dissolution or legal separation, section 452.330.1 has the court set apart each spouse's nonmarital property and divide the marital property and debts in such proportions as it deems just, after considering all relevant factors, including each spouse's economic circumstances, contributions including as a homemaker, the value of the nonmarital property set apart, the conduct of the parties during the marriage, and custodial arrangements for minor children.

The division is a final order not subject to modification under section 452.330.5, except that an order intended as a qualified domestic relations order may be changed only to establish or conform it. Section 452.330.6 lets the clerk of the court file the copy of a decree that subsection specifies, affecting title to real estate, with the recorder of deeds in the county where the land lies. A title search reports a recorded decree it finds.

Does a Missouri spouse have to sign the deed?

Missouri has no dower: section 474.110 abolishes dower and curtesy, except estates already vested when the probate code took effect. Two other statutes bear on a deed. Section 474.150.2 provides that any conveyance of real estate by a married person made without the joinder or other written express assent of the spouse, duly acknowledged, is deemed to be in fraud of the spouse's marital rights if the spouse survives, unless the contrary is shown. Section 474.150.1 lets a surviving spouse who was married to the decedent at the time of the gift, and who may share in the estate, elect to treat a gift in fraud of marital rights as a testamentary disposition, recoverable from the donee and persons taking from the decedent without adequate consideration and applied to the spouse's share. Section 474.150.3 deems a conveyance not in fraud where the probate division authorizes a disabled spouse's conservator to join or assent after the finding it describes.

For the homestead the rule is stricter. Section 513.475.2 says either spouse separately is debarred from and incapable of selling, mortgaging or alienating the homestead, that every such sale, mortgage or alienation is null and void, and that the spouses may convey or mortgage it jointly. Section 513.475.1 turns on land used as a homestead, which a deed may not show. In search practice, a Missouri title search reads each deed for stated marital status and for a spouse's joinder or written assent.

How much is the Missouri homestead exemption?

It is changing. The version of section 513.475.1 in force from August 28, 2003 until January 1, 2027 exempts a homestead not exceeding fifteen thousand dollars in value from attachment and execution. The version effective January 1, 2027, enacted in 2026, raises that to an aggregate value of forty thousand dollars. Section 513.423, which also takes effect January 1, 2027, has each dollar amount under section 513.475 adjusted for the Consumer Price Index on April 1, 2029 and at each three-year interval after that. Both versions also limit owners together: where more than one owner of a homestead claims the exemption, their exemptions may not exceed in the aggregate the total allowed for that homestead. The spousal rule in subsection 2 reads the same in both versions.

Section 474.290 is a separate thing. It has the court, on application, make a homestead allowance to a surviving spouse or unmarried minor children, not exceeding fifty percent of the estate as that section measures it and never more than fifteen thousand dollars.

How do Missouri spouses hold title together?

Section 442.450 makes a grant to two or more persons a tenancy in common unless it expressly declares a joint tenancy, but it excludes executors, trustees and husband and wife from that default, and it does not say what a deed to a husband and wife creates. Section 442.030 lets a husband and wife convey the real estate of either by their joint deed, and section 442.035 gives a conservator power to act on entireties property where a spouse is a minor or disabled, on that section's conditions. Section 442.025 lets an owner deed real estate to the owner and another person, including a spouse, with the same effect, as to whether it creates a joint tenancy, a tenancy by the entireties or a tenancy in common, as if a stranger had conveyed it. A title search reports the vesting words on each deed to spouses; what they create is for a Missouri attorney.

What happens to a Missouri spouse's real estate at death?

For property as to which a decedent dies intestate, section 474.010(1), subject to the payment of claims, gives the surviving spouse the entire intestate estate if there is no surviving issue, the first twenty thousand dollars plus one-half of the balance if all the issue are also the spouse's, and one-half if any issue is not the spouse's. With a will, section 474.160.1 lets the surviving spouse elect to take against it and receive one-half of the estate if there are no lineal descendants, or one-third if there are, subject to claims, in addition to exempt property and the section 474.260 allowance, taking nothing under the will.

That estate has a definition. Section 474.163 reduces what the decedent owned by funeral and administration expenses, exempt property, the family allowance and enforceable claims, increases it by what the spouse derived from the decedent by other means without full consideration, and offsets that derived amount against the share. Section 474.160.2 offsets any homestead allowance too.

Time and waiver limit the right. Section 474.180 sets the election at ten days after the time to contest the will expires, longer if the section's litigation is pending. Section 474.220 lets the right be waived by a signed written contract, agreement or waiver after full disclosure for fair consideration, and section 474.120 has a similar rule for intestate rights. Section 474.140 bars a spouse who abandoned the other without reasonable cause, or left with an adulterer, as that section describes, unless reconciled.

A deed the decedent made without the spouse's joinder or written assent raises section 474.150, which deems it in fraud of marital rights unless the contrary is shown. A gift in fraud may be recovered at the spouse's election, on the conditions in subsection 1. Whether that reaches a particular deed is for a Missouri attorney.

What a title search checks on a married Missouri owner

A title check before buying traces the chain of title with images, reads each deed and deed of trust for stated marital status and a spouse's joinder or written assent, reports the vesting words on deeds to spouses, and looks for a recorded divorce decree and probate records after a death. Homestead use may not appear in the record. Whether a spouse or former spouse still holds a claim is a legal conclusion for a Missouri attorney.

The Missouri marital property rules on this page, with their sources

Sources: IRS Publication 555, Community Property; RSMo 452.330, Disposition of property and debts; RSMo 474.110, Curtesy and dower abolished; RSMo 474.150, Gifts in fraud of marital rights; RSMo 513.475, Homestead; RSMo 513.475, version effective 2003 to 2027; RSMo 513.475, version effective January 1, 2027; RSMo 442.450, Conveyance to more than one; RSMo 442.025, Conveyance to self and others; RSMo 474.010, General rules of descent; RSMo 474.160, Election to take against will; RSMo 451.250; RSMo 474.163; RSMo 474.160; RSMo 474.180; RSMo 474.220; RSMo 474.120; RSMo 474.140; RSMo 474.290; RSMo 513.475; RSMo 474.150; RSMo 442.030; RSMo 442.035. Each row links the section it summarizes.

Questions people ask

More on how Missouri property law shapes a title search: title research in Missouri.